page_title: Nuclear weapons delivery
section_title: Other delivery systems
hierarchical_section_title: Nuclear weapons delivery / Main delivery mechanisms / Other delivery systems
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a U.S. developed M-388 Davy Crockett nuclear weapon mounted to a recoilless rifle on a tripod, shown here at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in March 1961. It used the smallest nuclear warhead ever developed by the United States.
context_page_description: Nuclear weapons delivery is the technology and systems used to place a nuclear weapon at the position of detonation, on or near its target. Several methods have been developed to carry out this task.
  Strategic nuclear weapons are used primarily as part of a doctrine of deterrence by threatening large targets, such as cities. Weapons meant for use in limited military maneuvers, such as destroying specific military, communications, or infrastructure targets, are known as tactical nuclear weapons. In terms of explosive yields, nowadays the former have much larger yield than the latter, even though it is not a rule. The bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 were weaker than many of today's tactical weapons, yet they achieved the desired effect when used strategically.
context_section_description: Other delivery methods included artillery shells, mines such as the Medium Atomic Demolition Munition and the novel Blue Peacock, nuclear depth charges, and nuclear torpedoes. An 'Atomic Bazooka' was also fielded, designed to be used against large formations of tanks.
  In the 1950s the US developed small nuclear warheads for air defense use, such as the Nike Hercules. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the United States and Canada fielded a low-yield nuclear-tipped air-to-air rocket, the AIR-2 Genie.  Further developments of this concept, some with much larger warheads, led to the early anti-ballistic missiles. The United States have largely taken nuclear air-defense weapons out of service with the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Russia updated its nuclear tipped Soviet era anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system, known as the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system in 1995. It is believed that the, in development (2013) successor to the nuclear A-135, the A-235 Samolet-M will dispense with nuclear interception warheads and instead rely on a conventional hit-to-kill capability to destroy its target.
  Small, two-man portable tactical weapons (erroneously referred to as suitcase bombs), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, have been developed, although the difficulty to combine sufficient yield with portability limits their military utility.
  Hypersonic Glide Vehicles are a new potential method of nuclear delivery. They can be potentially combined with ICBM MIRVs such as RS-28 Sarmat.
caption: The Davy Crockett artillery shell is the smallest known nuclear weapon developed by the US.
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